Professor Frink is sitting on the couch, and he zaps the family, causing them to shrink. Grandpa almost steps on them, then Homer takes a bite out of a giant chip. Snowball II chases the family, who escape into a mousehole. They sit on a piece of cheese, but it turns out to be on a mousetrap, which goes off, trapping them.

A Fox News helicopter flies by, with "Not Suitable For Viewers Under 75" on it. (original airing)King Homer climbs up the Empire State Building and takes the three-eyed crow in his hand. (online & international version)

Contents

"When a pigeon breaks its wing in the Simpson house, Bart takes the duty to protect the bird – who he calls Ray – until he recovers. When Ray is ready to fly, Homer decides to enter it in a bird race, which makes Danica Patrick appears in his dreams. However, plans go awry when Santa's Little Helper eats Ray. Thinking that Bart will need help to overcome the loss, Marge and Homer take him to a therapy session with Dr. Thurston, who diagnoses that the only cure for Bart's sadness is getting rid of the family dog. But when the Simpsons visit Santa's Little Helper's new home, the shock makes them rethink their decision.[1]"

During a thunderstorm, a carrier pigeon flies into the Simpsons's house. After discovering that its wing is injured, Lisa instructs Bart to take care of it, because she has a phobia of pigeons. Bart agrees to take it in, and nurses it back to health over several weeks. He tries to release it back into the wild, but he and the pigeon (nicknamed "Ray") have become too close, so he decides to keep it as a pet.

After seeing an advertisement for a video about the role of carrier pigeons in the Second World War, Bart and Homer decide to train Ray to carry messages, while Marge teaches Lisa that it is okay to be afraid of a single animal while caring about all others, as she herself is scared of opossums.

After training Ray to deliver messages, Bart and Homer use his ability for several pranks, such as Bart sending Mrs. Krabappel a message stating "who cares?" during a lesson and Homer sending Mr. Burns a message suggesting he should "do a ballet dance without no clothes on". Bart also sends Milhouse a message to become friends with him again, as they had had a fight earlier over a toy Milhouse had broken because he thought it was a Transformer.

Moe comes by the house, suggesting that Ray might become a racing pigeon. As he is discussing it with Homer and Bart, however, Santa's Little Helper eats Ray, despite Homer's attempts to rescue him. Overcome with grief, the family holds a funeral for Ray and Bart becomes resentful of Santa's Little Helper.

Marge and Homer take Bart to see Dr. Thurston, a psychologist. She suggests to Bart that he should forgive Santa's Little Helper, as he is the smarter of the two and knows that dogs do not have the brain capacity to know that it is wrong to kill small birds. Bart still cannot forgive Santa's Little Helper, so the family plan to take him to live on a farm upstate, Ostrich World. Bart shares parting words with Santa's Little Helper, telling him never to kill a bird ever again.

As the family are about to leave, Homer releases an ostrich and it starts attacking the family. Bart calls for Santa's Little Helper to help, but he is confused, since Bart told him earlier it was wrong to hurt birds. Bart ends up clobbering the bird with some nearby tools, forgives Santa's Little Helper, and the family leaves happily, taking the seemingly dead ostrich as meat for dinner. As they are driving, though, the bird wakes up, breaks through the roof, and starts strangling Homer with its foot. The episode ends with the car swerving down the roads as Homer tries to steer.